{"id":4777,"date":"2013-02-20T11:25:11","date_gmt":"2013-02-20T16:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/?p=4777"},"modified":"2013-02-20T11:25:11","modified_gmt":"2013-02-20T16:25:11","slug":"art-is-life-not-just-a-hobby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/archives\/4777","title":{"rendered":"Art is life, not just a hobby"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Shea2\"<\/a>By Jen Noel —<\/strong>\u00a0An artist is stereotyped in a couple different ways. \u00a0Some visualize a broke hippie getting in touch with his or her inner feelings and putting it on a canvas. Others think of fine wine and arrogant artists in a New York City gallery. However, an artist does not have to be either or; at least not for Shea Hartman-Hodges.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew I wanted to be an artist around the age of 25,\u201d Hodges says. She adds that she had lost her job at a bank, had three kids, a husband and had already tried lots of things. She says, \u201cAt this point, I didn\u2019t care what I did, I just wanted to enjoy what I did.\u201d Therefore, she began studying at Morningside College to earn a degree in studio art and creative writing.<\/p>\n

Hodges says, \u201cMost people told me I couldn\u2019t get a degree in art or writing. Especially writing, because I have dyslexia. That was all more reason for me to prove them wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, Shea sits in her downtown studio in Sioux City. Her long brown hair is down, and she is dressed in jeans and a crochet sweater. Her smile is always more than welcoming.<\/p>\n

Terry McGaffin, a professor at Morningside, says, \u201cI was set up to be her advisor for art classes. She made a strong first impression, a very positive force. Her confidence and self knowledge just leaves you in awe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shea talks about what it means to be a modern day artist. She says, \u201cWhen I\u2019m asked what I do, and I reply that I\u2019m an artist, they say, \u2018OK, but what\u2019s your real job?\u2019\u201d She laughs and says that she usually tells them she also bartends downtown. \u201cPeople look at art like it\u2019s just a hobby,\u201d explains Hodges.<\/p>\n

She feels this is why it is so financially hard to keep up. Most people in the area do not buy professional artwork. You can\u2019t buy paint and supplies to continue to do art, when no money from your work is coming in. Other struggles she has found include finding places to show her work and knowing how to promote herself. \u201cThe huge thing I learned in school was confidence and how to take criticism, but no one taught me how to promote myself to the public,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

McGaffin feels that one thing Shea does best is keeping herself informed. Sitting on Shea\u2019s desk is a copy of \u201cI\u2019d Rather Be in the Studio,\u201d a book on self-promotion. She looks at it and says, with a large grin on her face, that it\u2019s \u201cher Bible.\u201d<\/p>\n

She never regrets her line of work choice. \u201cI love my job. I don\u2019t have to make excuses for being eccentric. Most of all, I can show my kids no matter what, you can go after your dreams,\u201d says Hodges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jen Noel —\u00a0An artist is stereotyped in a couple different ways. \u00a0Some visualize a broke hippie getting in touch with his or her inner feelings and putting it on a canvas. Others think of fine wine and arrogant artists in a New York City gallery. However, an artist does not have to be either…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":4778,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56109],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-morningside-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4777"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4777\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4779,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4777\/revisions\/4779"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}